Editing Auschwitz concentration camp (section)

===Life for the inmates===
The day began at 4:30&nbsp;am for the men (an hour later in winter), and earlier for the women, when the block supervisor sounded a gong and started beating inmates with sticks to make them wash and use the latrines quickly.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000b|pp=65–66}} There were few latrines and there was a lack of clean water. Each washhouse had to service thousands of prisoners. In sectors BIa and BIb in Auschwitz II, two buildings containing latrines and washrooms were installed in 1943. These contained troughs for washing and 90 faucets; the toilet facilities were "sewage channels" covered by concrete with 58 holes for seating. There were three barracks with washing facilities or toilets to serve 16 residential barracks in BIIa, and six washrooms/latrines for 32 barracks in BIIb, BIIc, BIId, and BIIe.{{sfn|Iwaszko|2000b|p=56}}<!--Rewrite: The camps were infested with vermin such as disease-carrying lice, and inmates died in epidemics of typhus and other diseases.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=94}} [[Noma (disease)|Noma]], a bacterial infection, was a common cause of death among children in the gypsy camp.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=111}}--> [[Primo Levi]] described a 1944 [[#Auschwitz III-Monowitz|Auschwitz III]] washroom:

[[File:Toaletter på auschwitz 2.jpg|thumb|[[Latrine]] in the men's quarantine camp, sector BIIa, Auschwitz II, 2003]]
{{blockquote|It is badly lighted, full of draughts, with the brick floor covered by a layer of mud. The water is not drinkable; it has a revolting smell and often fails for many hours. The walls are covered by curious didactic [[fresco]]es: for example, there is the good Häftling [prisoner], portrayed stripped to the waist, about to diligently soap his sheared and rosy cranium, and the bad Häftling, with a strong Semitic nose and a greenish colour, bundled up in his ostentatiously stained clothes with a beret on his head, who cautiously dips a finger into the water of the washbasin. Under the first is written: "''So bist du rein''" (like this you are clean), and under the second, "''So gehst du ein''" (like this you come to a bad end); and lower down, in doubtful French but in Gothic script: "''La propreté, c'est la santé''" [cleanliness is health].{{sfn|Levi|2001|p=45}}<!--On the opposite wall an enormous white, red and black louse encamps, with the writing: "''Ein Laus, dein Tod'' (a louse is your death) and the inspired distich: "''Nach dem Abort, vor dem Essen / Hände waschen, nicht vergessen.''" (After the latrines, before eating, wash your hands, do not forget.){{sfn|Levi|2001|pp=45–46}}-->}}

Prisoners received half a litre of coffee substitute or a herbal tea in the morning, but no food.{{sfn|Iwaszko|2000b|p=60}} A second gong heralded roll call, when inmates lined up outside in rows of ten to be counted. No matter the weather, they had to wait for the SS to arrive for the count; how long they stood there depended on the officers' mood, and whether there had been escapes or other events attracting punishment.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000b|p=66}} Guards might force the prisoners to squat for an hour with their hands above their heads or hand out beatings or detention for infractions such as having a missing button or an improperly cleaned food bowl. The inmates were counted and re-counted.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=33}}
{{multiple image
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| image1 = Auschwitz 1 concentration camp bunks 6006 4162.jpg
| caption1 = Auschwitz II brick barracks, sector BI, 2006; four prisoners slept in each partition, known as a ''buk''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Life in the camp: living conditions |url=http://auschwitz.org/en/history/life-in-the-camp/ |publisher=Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum |archive-url=https://archive.today/20160319121518/http://auschwitz.org/en/history/life-in-the-camp/ |archive-date=19 March 2016 |url-status=live |access-date=3 January 2020}}</ref>
| image2 = Auschwitz.Birkenau.QuarantaineBarrack.jpg
| caption2 = Auschwitz II wooden barracks, 2008}}

After roll call, to the sound of "''Arbeitskommandos formieren''" ("form work details"), prisoners walked to their place of work, five abreast, to begin a working day that was normally 11 hours long—longer in summer and shorter in winter.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000b|p=67}}<!--wearing striped camp fatigues, no underwear, and ill-fitting wooden shoes without socks.{{sfn|Gutman|1998|pp=20–21}}--> A prison orchestra, such as the [[Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz]], was forced to play cheerful music as the workers left the camp. ''Kapos'' were responsible for the prisoners' behaviour while they worked, as was an SS escort. Much of the work took place outdoors at construction sites, gravel pits, and lumber yards. No rest periods were allowed. One prisoner was assigned to the latrines to measure the time the workers took to empty their bladders and bowels.<ref>{{harvnb|Steinbacher|2005|p=33}}; {{harvnb|Gutman|1998|pp=20–21}}.</ref>

Lunch was three-quarters of a litre of watery soup at midday, reportedly foul-tasting, with meat in the soup four times a week and vegetables (mostly potatoes and [[rutabaga]]) three times. The evening meal was 300 grams of bread, often moldy, part of which the inmates were expected to keep for breakfast the next day, with a tablespoon of cheese or marmalade, or 25 grams of margarine or sausage. Prisoners engaged in hard labour were given extra rations.{{sfn|Iwaszko|2000b|pp=60–61}}

A second roll call took place at seven in the evening, in the course of which prisoners might be hanged or flogged. If a prisoner was missing, the others had to remain standing until the absentee was found or the reason for the absence discovered, even if it took hours. On 6 July 1940, roll call lasted 19 hours because a Polish prisoner, [[Tadeusz Wiejowski]], had escaped; following an escape in 1941, a group of prisoners was picked out from the escapee's barracks and sent to block 11 to be starved to death.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000b|pp=68–69}} After roll call, prisoners retired to their blocks for the night and received their bread rations. Then they had some free time to use the washrooms and receive their mail, unless they were Jews: Jews were not allowed to receive mail. Curfew ("nighttime quiet") was marked by a gong at nine o'clock.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000b|p=69}} Inmates slept in long rows of brick or wooden bunks, or on the floor, lying in and on their clothes and shoes to prevent them from being stolen.<ref>{{harvnb|Gutman|1998|p=21}}; {{harvnb|Iwaszko|2000b|p=55}}; for the floor, see {{harvnb|Strzelecka|2000b|p=70}}.</ref> The wooden bunks had blankets and paper mattresses filled with wood shavings; in the brick barracks, inmates lay on straw.{{sfn|Iwaszko|2000b|p=55}} According to [[Miklós Nyiszli]]:
{{blockquote|Eight hundred to a thousand people were crammed into the superimposed compartments of each barracks. Unable to stretch out completely, they slept there both lengthwise and crosswise, with one man's feet on another's head, neck, or chest. Stripped of all human dignity, they pushed and shoved and bit and kicked each other in an effort to get a few more inches' space on which to sleep a little more comfortably. For they did not have long to sleep.{{sfn|Nyiszli|2011|p=25}}}}

Sunday was not a workday, but prisoners had to clean the barracks and take their weekly shower,{{sfn|Gutman|1998|p=21}} and were allowed to write (in German) to their families, although the SS censored the mail. Inmates who did not speak German would trade bread for help.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=34}} [[Shomer Shabbat|Observant Jews]] tried to keep track of the [[Hebrew calendar]] and [[Jewish holidays]], including [[Shabbat]], and the [[weekly Torah portion]]. No watches, calendars, or clocks were permitted in the camp. Only two Jewish calendars made in Auschwitz survived to the end of the war. Prisoners kept track of the days in other ways, such as obtaining information from newcomers.{{sfn|Rosen|2014|p=18}}